Historian's Craft

Episodes

In 1834, the growing unrest and instability between American natives and Irish immigrants was approaching the point of violence. In 1834, the Boston Evening Transcript reported an act of arson that broke the line between civil unrest - in the form of protest - and violence, when the Charlestown Convent was burned to the ground. Near eleven o’clock on 11 August, arsonists gave warning to the inhabitants...

The Communist Party was infiltrating Birmingham, Alabama and the National Guard was beginning to worry. On October 19, 1932, Second Lieutenant Ralph Hurst wrote to his commanding officer Brigadier General J.C. Parsons about the “Communist Agitation” in Birmingham. The International Labor Defense had recently moved its Southern headquarters to Birmingham and there had been trouble ever since. According...

He called it a "rape of history." Birmingham News art critic James Nelson made this charge as part of his plea to the citizens of Birmingham to save the historic Fox building. The Fox once housed one of the city’s many theatres; however, that was not the reason Nelson wanted to save it. The building was an architectural marvel and a structure he believed was Birmingham’s equivalent to Chicago’s...

On the eve of battle, war cries echoed throughout the valleys surrounding Fredericksburg Virginia in Spotsylvania County. Among the nearly 200,000 men preparing to engage in battle, just under two thousand were Irish Americans. These men, new to the land, had been conscripted into service almost as soon as setting dry-foot upon US soil. Despite the Irish immingrants' recent arrival, they were more...

The textile workers had had enough. On September 1, 1934 at 11:30 p.m. they went on strike. Francis J. Gorman, Chairman of the National Special Strike Committee of the United Textile Workers of America, sent a telegraph to Alabama Governor Benjamin Miller to make him aware of the strike and the reasons behind it. Gorman reasoned that the workers themselves provided the authority for the strike and...

During World War II , whites and blacks had sacrificed for their country; yet, only the whites who returned found themselves recipients of respect. Around 9:40pm on June 6, 1943 a “negro” soldier boarded a streetcar in Birmingham, Alabama on the North Birmingham Line. Instead of moving to the back of the car, he chose to stand in the white section. White passengers began to complain and the conductor...

In 1918 the American Bayer aspirin manufacturer ran an advertisement in the October 18, 1918 edition of the Birmingham News, assuring readers that “the manufacture of Bayer-Tablets and Capsules of Aspirin is completely under American control.” They wanted to assure readers that they were “being operated as a 100% American concern” and that the overseers of that operation were all “native...

Alexander Rea was murdered on a Saturday morning on October 23, 1868 while on his way to the coal mine where he worked. He was shot six times at close range and $500 dollars was stolen from his body. The corpse was hidden in the bushes and was not discovered until the next day. Eleven years later three suspects were arrested and tried for the crime. Patrick Hester, Peter McHugh, and Patrick Tully, ...

On a hot midafternoon on June 21, 1943, a streetcar filled with passengers eased along the East Lake Line in Birmingham, Alabama. When it reached its next stop no one got off, but one white man and two white women attempted to board the already packed car. The conductor, claiming there was standing room in the “negro” section, told some “negro” passengers who were standing near the entrance...

“Fight To Win!”The Communist Party in Birmingham, Alabama spread many fliers with this message throughout the 1930s. Communists urged miners and steel workers to fight for higher wages. The communists proclaimed to be “giving leadership to the workers and raising real demands for them.” They urged white and black workers to band together and claimed that the unity of the two races on this issue...